ansible

ansible run command on remote host in background


I am trying to start filebeat (or for that matter any other process which will run continuously on demand) process on multiple hosts using ansible. I don't want ansible to wait till the process keeps on running. I want ansible to fire and forget and come out and keep remote process running in back ground. I've tried using below options:

    ---
    - hosts: filebeat
      tasks:
      - name: start filebeat
option a)  command: filebeat -c filebeat.yml &
option b)  command: nohup filebeat -c filebeat.yml &
option c)  shell: filebeat -c filebeat.yml &
           async: 0 //Tried without as well. If its > 0 then it only waits for that much of time and terminates the filebeat process on remote host and comes out.
           poll: 0

Solution

  • Simplified answer from link I mentioned in the comment:

    ---
    - hosts: centos-target
      gather_facts: no
      tasks:
        - shell: "(cd /; python -mSimpleHTTPServer >/dev/null 2>&1 &)"
          async: 10
          poll: 0
    

    Note subshell parentheses.

    Update: actually, you should be fine without async, just don't forget to redirect stdout:

    - name: start simple http server in background
      shell: cd /tmp/www; nohup python -mSimpleHTTPServer </dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1 &